Gender & Texts: A Professional Development Package for English Teachers

172 Pages·1999·16.588 MB·English

by  Wayne Martino (editor), Chris Cook (editor)

A Profession a lopment Package for English Teachers
AUSTRALI AN A S S OC I AT I ON FOR THE T E A C H I N G OF E N G t I S H

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A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PACKAGE
FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS
Australian Association for the Teaching of English Inc.
PO box 3203, Norwood SA 5067
© Australian Association for the Teaching of English Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission from AATE Inc. apart from reasonable use for academic or
educational purposes.
First Published October 1998
Acknowledgement:
We are grateful to Allen & Unwin for permission to use David Bichbinder's
chapter in this book.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-publication data:
Gender and text: a professional development package for English teachers.
Bibliography.
ISBN 1 875659 13 7.
I. Gender identity in literature. 2. Femininity in literature. 3. Masculinity
(Psychology) in literature. 4. Sex role in literature. I. Martino, Wayne John.
II. Cook, Christine. III. Australian Association for the Teaching of English.
IV. English Teachers Association of Western Australia.
820.928
AATE/Interface Series
Commissioning Editor: Sieta vander Hoeven
Cover, design and typesetting by Colorperception Pty Ltd
Text set in 12/15 Wiess
Printed in Australia by Hyde Park Press
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A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PACKAGE
FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS
WAYNE MARTINO & CHRIS COOK(EDS)
CONTRIBUTORS:
Brian Moon
Wayne Martino
Colin Kenworthy
David Buchbinder
Published by AATE in conjuction with
English Teachers’ Association of Western Australia
1998
The AATE/In ter lace Series comprises a range of books for teachers
who are committed to researching their own teaching - teachers
who work at the interface between theory and practice. Interface
titles will all have a practical edge, in that they will include ideas
developed in classrooms, for use in classrooms. Yet they are far
more than a set of resources. Their primary purpose is to address
significant issues in English curriculum and pedagogy, including
the gendered nature of literacy practices, forms of responding to
students' writing, and the value of narrative in classroom settings.
The AATE/Interface series will represent a substantial contribution
to our knowledge as English teachers and literacy educators.
TABLE OF C O N T E N T S
F o r e w o r d v
C h a pt er O n e i
R A G :
eading nd ender
Brian Moon
Introduction
3
Reading The Eagle' 6
f
A c t i v i t y 6
Reading through Gender 9
Reading 'Beached Yacht' 3
1
Ac t i v i t y 2 13
Reading 'The Truck Driver' 8
1
3
A c tiv i ty 19
References 30
Texts used in the collection of student readings 33
C h a pt er T w o 35
T G C L C .-
argeting ender in the ritical iteracy lassroom
Wayne Martino
Introduction 37
Literacy practices and the construction of masculinities 39
Reading for gender 41
Reading students' readings of 'Rhinoceros Beetle' 45
'Interweaving between the categories': Reading Insane With Desire' 53
Reading students' readings of 'Insane With Desire' 56
Conclusion 65
References 66
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C h a pt er T h r ee 73
G L : T P C :
ender and iteracy heory and ractice in the lassroom
Colin Kenworthy
Introduction 75
Lesson One: 'Bob's Fish' 80
Lesson Two: The Bad Deeds Gang' 99
Application 116
References 120
C h a pt er F o u r 1 25
R T M I
eading he asculine n
Strictly Ballroom-.
David Buchbinder
Introduction 127
A model of masculinity 129
A c t i v i t y l
30
1
Queer theory 132
j
A c tiv i ty 2 34
A c t i v i t y 3 137
Patriarchal ideology 138
o
A c t i v i t y 4 14
The masculine as part of a gender system 142
Reading texts: 146
Strictly Ballroom
A c t i v i t y 5 150
References and selected further readings 51
1
VI
F O R E W O R D
This collection of papers is based on a Professional Development Project funded by
the Australian Association for the Teaching of English in 1997. It was conducted by
the English Teachers' Association of Western Australia and draws together particular
perspectives on using texts in the English classroom which address issues of gender
and/or sexuality. One of the aims of this project was to provide an arena for English
teachers to engage with translating current theoretical perspectives on reading and
gender into classroom practice. In fact, the papers included as part of this package all
make explicit the implications of particular social and cultural theories for developing
specific kinds of pedagogical practices for encouraging students to read texts in quite
specific ways. It is in this sense that they all address, in one way or another, how
English teachers might work with particular texts, according to an explicit set of
norms, to achieve certain objectives. The issues that are addressed by many of the
authors range from a focus on gendered reading practices, as an effect of specific social
trainings, to the role that sexuality plays or should play in discussions about the social
construction of masculinities and their impact on the lives of both boys and girls. Such
perspectives are in line with current research into both the politicised aspects of
specific literacy practices1
Moon provides a useful framework for understanding the links between gender
and reading texts. He argues that texts are read is an effect of practical
bow
routines and specific techniques. In this sense, reading is not presented as a
cognitive-affective process or a mental activity which is formed in the realm
1 For references to the political aspects of literary practices, see Luke, Freebody & Muspratt forthcoming,
Hunter, 1991, Mellor & Patterson, 1994, 1996,- Pallotta-Chiarolli, 1995,- Martino, 1995, Green, 1990)
For references to the role that sexuality plays in the policing of gender for boys and girls in school see
Laskey & Bcavis, 1996; Mac an Ghaill, 1994; Connell, 1994; Nayak & Kehily, 1996,- Epstein, 1997;
Lees, 1993; Martino, 1997, Steinberg et al, 1997.
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of consciousness. However, he does argue that readers draw on available
knowledges about gender when they read texts, but he emphasises that these
knowledges are not somehow stored or represented in consciousness as a Vague
set of ideas that predispose the reader to experience the [text] in a particular
way'. Through analysing students' readings of texts, he demonstrates how
students read through character to produce gendered readings of texts which
are a result of culturally and historically specific practices. And he argues that
this constitutes a particular way of reading or training in which a moral
discourse of gender is implicated.
Martino, in his paper also focuses on gendered readings of texts and examines
the implications of his research in terms of devising specific kinds of literacy
practices in the English classroom. He argues that certain texts may be
strategically deployed in the literacy classroom to target the impact and effects
of dominant models of masculinity on the lives of both boys and girls. By
drawing attention to how students read two particular texts, he claims that on
occasions it may be necessary to teach students to read explicitly for gender
and, in this way, help them to build up a specific repertoire of knowledge about
the social construction of masculinities. He also points out that the ways in
which gender intersects with other social factors such as race, class, ethnicity
and sexuality can also be targeted according to specific norms for reading texts
in particular ways. However, he does indicate that the students' own readings
of texts can provide a useful teaching resource and monitoring device for
helping teachers to understand the gender knowledges that students are
drawing on when they read particular texts.
Kenworthy's paper is also useful in translating theory into practice for
classroom teachers. He draws on discourse theory as a basis for devising a set
of practical classroom activities which are built around quite specific norms for
reading gender. His paper is useful because it provides specific and detailed
guidelines for assisting teachers to work with particular texts in their
classrooms. Moreover, he demonstrates how students can be assisted to
produce resistant readings of texts within an ideological and politicised
framework for deploying texts in the literacy classroom. He also provides some
comment about the classroom discussions that resulted from his own use of
these texts with students.